Off Rock by Kieran Shea

Author:Kieran Shea
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Titan

13. TOP UP, HOMUNCULUS

After lassoing the loop of an IV bag around the neck of the life-sized cardboard cutout of Miss Jupiter 2772 and piercing his left arm with a properly gauged catheter, Jock lined up a hypodermic, inserted the twelve millimeter needle, and released an enriched trans-amphetamine elixir into his distressed system.

Jock had a number of pilfered medical supplies in his quarters. Anesthetics. Top-notch antibiotics and anti-depressant mood euphoriants. He’d set aside several vials of his current specifically fabricated concoction for those times when judiciousness failed him and he didn’t have the stamina to lard his way through. He was getting on in years, and with senescence it seemed Jock’s limits at elbow bending had once again failed him. Not being able to hang out the cat like he used to was getting to be a real drag.

Minutes later, however, the IV cocktail worked its magic and he felt reborn. Not as bright as a waking baby, per se, but alert enough to be hungry. Picking up a package of barbecued-flavored soy jerky, he fed a leathery staff into his mouth. With his vim on the mend, at least now he could think straight.

Ninety-eight percent purity at fifty kilos…

Good God almighty, how fortunate was he? Of all people, Jimmy Vik dropping this propitious salvation in his lap—it was as if Kismet had at last set its light upon him and now it was up to Jock to make it all work out in his favor. Of course with Jimmy he’d paraded keen savoir-faire and excitement, because he knew better than to show trepidation with such an opportunity in play, but holy hell—a score like this? This sort of thing only came along once in a lifetime. Ten lifetimes. Eager as he was, Jock was still a pragmatist at heart. Most of the time, with intrigues and schemes of lesser bents, he knew that these things unraveled without due diligence. There were so many quirks and budding snafus to consider.

Poor, deluded Jimmy. There wasn’t a cold chance in hell he was going to let some hump like him come out on top with all this. It was a shame, Jock supposed. Essentially he liked Jimmy (as much as he liked anyone, which wasn’t saying much), but with so much profit before him Jock needed to keep up the “uff” in his buffaloing. Hell, fifty kilos of gold was a king’s ransom, a fortune with zeroes stretching out like a long string of shiny balloons.

Swallowing a rough portion of the jerky, Jock thought about how he and Jimmy had gone on about trust not being a one-way proposition. Ha. To Jock trust wasn’t a proposition at all. With Jimmy out at Fifty-Seven doing all the hard work and banking on Jock playing fair that was Jimmy’s biggest mistake. The man’s half-share grandeur dreams of la dolce vita were on borrowed time.

Back down at his quarters, when he’d shared the somewhat shady ins-and-outs of getting the gold back to Earth, Jock had

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